This invention relates to a coherent radar, and more particularly to an improved coherent radar altimeter.
As those skilled in the art will understand, coherent radar systems are sensitive to the phase consistency of the received echoes. Radar echoes from an extended surface, such as the surface of the earth, are such that, for a radar carried by a moving platform, the relative phase of the radio frequency (RF) pulses in a sequential pulse train rapidly decorrelate. For this reason use of coherent radar for aircraft altimeters has been heretofore impractical.
At the same time, as will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art, coherent systems offer advantages of consequence in terms of low peak transmitter power (enabling the use of solid state RF transmitters at C-band) and relative immunity to spurious signals. In particular, these advantages would be significant in a precision altimeter based upon coherent pulse operation. For example, operation to 50,000 feet and higher necessitates coherent operation in order to utilize solid state transmitters of reasonable cost. But prior art proposals for coherent pulsed radar altimeters have not been satisfactory. As mentioned above, return signal phase decorrelation caused by a Doppler shift as a result of platform motion and phase shifts due to topological irregularities within the return surface area has made coherent pulse altimeters using narrow bandwidth receivers impractical.